Comprehensive event software is critical to the success of a fundraising event and can vastly improve your donors’ experience and your bottom line. The software can routinize many time-consuming and overwhelming management tasks. Staff time previously spent on guest tracking and other chores can be focused on building relationships with donors.

Fundraising technology also simplifies the customer experience for the donation process. From a visually appealing and optimized donation page or a mobile silent auction using online or text message bidding, innovative fundraising tools make our lives easier. This streamlines the donation process so supporters can enjoy the event while connecting with your cause. Additionally, silent auctions enabled with technology outperform the old-fashioned approach.

There are many software solutions – all of which have pluses and minuses. Given that every nonprofit and every event is different and software companies are constantly updating products, we recommend taking the time to review different software each year to compare price and to see which one is a good fit. Here are the factors we consider:

• Event web pages. Does the software offer event web pages or a microsite that can be embedded in your website, branded to look like your organization? Your contributors want to feel confident that their money is supporting your organization. The event landing/registration page should use your event’s unique branding and color scheme which hopefully is congruous with your main brand.
• Close the deal fast. It is a basic tenant of commerce – always be closing! Engaging your supporters from the get-go, an event registration page that’s easy to navigate encourages follow-through giving. Making it as easy for guests to purchase tickets or a sponsorship as it is to buy a pair of shoes on Zappos improves the fundraising outcome. And, the money goes straight into your bank account.

• Provide an instant tax receipt. Though an auto-generated receipt never replaces a thoughtful thank-you note, your donors immediately have a receipt for tax deductions.
• Guest tracking. The information collected through the event’s registration page helps track the contributor, their guests, their mailing address, etc. This can be integrated with your CRM system. Careful guest and income tracking helps with renewing people’s giving and forecasting income in future years.
• Event check-in. We hate long lines at the door of a fundraising event. Customer experience, and how good or bad they feel about the event, starts the minute they arrive. Good event software speeds up guest check-in and allows organizers to efficiently communicate table assignments and keep track of the percentage of people who have checked in for the evening.
• Flexibility in supporting the event. Robust fundraising software offers your contributors more flexibility. Instead of being restricted to having to clear their calendars to attend, they can support you any time. So donors who may have moved away can still contribute, as easily as buying a book on Amazon, even if they can’t attend.
• E Journal. Go green and ditch the paper journal- it will only end up in the landfill after the event. Instead we recommend a digital journal which rotates during the event and can live on your website for a full year afterwards. The close out date for the ads can be much closer to the event date and everybody loves it. You can make commemorative prints for those who purchased an ad.
• Getting the word out. While we still believe in paper save-the-date cards, presale letters, and invitations, a good event website with an easy-to-use built-in payment system can be shared via email and social media. Board members, honorees, and host committee members can send out a digital invitation or reminder with an event graphic and link back to the event web page. This makes it easy for their friends and colleagues to seamlessly make a purchase.

We spend hours each year reviewing the capabilities of each of the software options. CLICK HERE to get a free copy of our latest table outlining the software solutions and their pluses and minuses. Contact us if you have any questions. We will happily share what we know.

“Growth for Good really helped us determine the right event management software to use, in our case OneCause. Growth for Good’s expertise in maximizing technology definitely helped us spend more time on fundraising rather than the mundane tasks that could be automated. Loves it!” – Lori Benson, Executive Director & CEO, Hip Hop Public Health